Note: This study found no significant biological effects under its experimental conditions. We include all studies for scientific completeness.
Skin temperature increase caused by a mobile phone: A methodological infrared camera study
Straume A, Oftedal G, Johnsson A · 2005
View Original AbstractPhone-induced skin heating comes from the device's physical presence and electrical components, not from radio frequency radiation itself.
Plain English Summary
Norwegian researchers used infrared cameras to measure skin temperature changes when a volunteer held a mobile phone for up to 30 minutes. They found that the phone's physical presence and electrical heating caused statistically significant temperature increases, but the radio frequency radiation itself did not contribute to skin warming. This suggests that the "hot ear" sensation many phone users experience comes from the device's physical properties rather than its electromagnetic emissions.
Study Details
Mobile phone users often complain about burning sensations or a heating of the ear region. The increase in temperature may be due to thermal insulation by the phone, heating of the mobile phone resulting from its electrical power dissipation, and radio frequency (RF) exposure. The main objective of this study was to use infrared (IR) camera techniques to find how much each of these factors contributes to the increase in skin temperature resulting from the use of one GSM 900 phone.
One subject, a healthy male, took part in the study. He was holding the phone in a normal position w...
Show BibTeX
@article{a_2005_skin_temperature_increase_caused_3425,
author = {Straume A and Oftedal G and Johnsson A},
title = {Skin temperature increase caused by a mobile phone: A methodological infrared camera study},
year = {2005},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15931679/},
}